I Take YouBy Eliza Kennedy
Publishing Date: May 5, 2015 By CrownPages: 320Source: E-ARC from PublisherCover Love: Cute and correlates with the story, but you won't know until you read it.Summary: "I'm getting married.""He's perfect!""It's a disaster." Meet Lily Wilder--New Yorker, lawyer and the luckiest woman in the world. She has a dream job, friends who adore her, a family full of charismatic and loving women, and a total catch of a fiance. Also? She has "no" business getting married.Lily's fiance Will is a brilliant, handsome archaeologist. Lily is sassy, impulsive, fond of a good drink (or five) and completely incapable of being faithful to just one man. Lily likes Will, but does she love him? Will loves Lily, but does he really know her? As the wedding approaches, Lily's nights--and mornings, and afternoons--of booze, laughter and questionable decisions become a growing reminder that the happiest day of her life might turn out to be her worst mistake yet."Bridget Jones's Diary" meets "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" in this joyous and ribald debut, introducing a fabulously self-assured protagonist whose choices raise fresh questions about gender politics, monogamy and the true meaning of fidelity.My Thoughts: This was an interesting take on chick-lit. I don't read it often, but if they're books like this in the genre, I definitely will read more. It's different, it's larger-than-life hilarious and even more relatable. In a world where most women are considered either prudish or slut, this book reigns true to just about every woman who's ever been in a relationship. Yes, we love the person we're with, but we will buy tickets to see Magic Mike and wish it was us that Channing Tatum was grinding on. That is exactly the kinds of things our main character thinks about and although she doesn't exactly do what's right (sleep with other men), she explains that it's okay to have wandering eyes when you see an attractive man walk past you.When you begin the book, there's a lot of OMG, WTF moments where you're in disbelief that these things are happening and it makes the story very much outrageous. However, once you're settled in with the novel, the story begins ringing true to you, just in a probably unbelievable way. Our main character, Lily, is very much flawed. She cheats on her finacee with somewhat no remorse, she's loud, she tells inappropriate jokes and maybe has a bit of a drinking problem, but she's real. When she talks on the phone and other are around, she talks to both of them (as I do) and she even has a witty banter with her best friend that shows she just may hate her as well as love her (as I do). Another reason, I love this book.But a book so great, doesn't come without problems. Towards the beginning, there's memories and character description that just doesn't hit the mark for me. We don't really get to know our character until a few chapters in. It wasn't a huge problem, but still...Another issue was the awkward writing. Although this is an ARC and the writing issues may be fixed in the full novel, it was full of awkward phrasings and wording that just made me cringe to read, but I was so intrigued with the story, I read on.Personally this is the first book I've sat down and finished reading in one sitting in a while. Although outrageous, I Take You, is just like reading my own diary (without all the infidelity and drinking) and I highly recommend it.